Brolley was blessed with the mobility of Peyton Manning, but he lacked Manning’s encyclopedic football knowledge and his laser-rocket arm. Not surprisingly, colleges didn’t come calling for Brolley after four years as a high school quarterback in Western Pennsylvania. He decided to stay as close to the game as possible so he studied journalism and took up sports writing at Penn State University. Brolley covered a variety of varsity sports while writing for the The Daily Collegian, a student-run paper, including stories on the football team.

Brolley graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism in 2008 and that summer he interned with the Reading Eagle in Reading, Pa. Brolley spent a couple days at the Philadelphia Eagles training camp in Bethlehem, Pa., where he ran into the great Joe Dolan. Brolley then spent four years at The Citizens’ Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he covered a lot of football in the fall. Brolley even saw a couple high school players that could be future NFL players during his time in Northeast Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2012, Brolley covered Penn State’s first game without Joe Paterno as head coach in 46 years. Brolley, from Ebensburg, Pa., has been a Pittsburgh sports fan since birth. He’s eagerly waiting for the Pirates first winning season since he played Tee-ball.